Forbidden Dance
by Lilyana Turner
Summary: The story of an American girl and her best friend as they struggle to cope with the way life has turned out. With someone bent on taking you down every step of the way, it's not as easy as it sounds. OxOc, JxA, YxU.
1. Skating

A/N: This is a story I've been meaning to write for a while and haven't had the time to do it. Now I do, so here it is. Anyways… For starters, let's get a few things straight. Luke is 18. He's a senior. Adrianne is 16 and a junior. Luke is _not_ gay. Neither is Adrianne. Luke likes Adrianne. End of story.

Being a teenager isn't easy. It gets hard when you have your driver's license, and even harder when you have a hobby that cuts into your homework time. It gets really, really hard when your hobby calls for you to rise at 4:15 in the morning… every morning. Except Saturdays. Then I have to be up by 7, and I get to train… all day.

What is this hobby that causes me to rise in the wee hours of the morning? Pair Skating. Like when there's a guy and a girl on ice skates and they do all this fancy-schmancy stuff while acting like they adore each other. And sometimes they do… It gets quite… interesting… after a while. Especially when my partner is head-over-heels absolutely crazy about me.

I'm not alone in my training, though. Obviously, I'm with my coach, George. And since I'm a Pair Skater, I'm with my partner, Luke Schearer, too. Being a Pair Skater takes a lot out of you. Especially since I'm still in school, and thus have to make my practice schedule fit around my school schedule. It's very confusing, considering the fact that Luke is also still in school.

I wake up at 4:15 A.M… every morning. He wakes up around 3:50 because he insists on taking a shower before he comes. I see no point in it… you're only going to get sweaty… again… Anyways. We make it to practice by 5 a.m. and practice from 5 to 6:45 or 7:00. Then we shower off, and I get a ride with him. We usually stop at either Chick-Fil-A or Burger King, eat breakfast on our way to school, and arrive between 7:15 and 7:40. We go to school from 8 to 12:30. Then we eat lunch and go back to IcePlex at 1:15. We skate from 1:15 to 4:45, then go to the gym with George to train from 5 to 6:30. Then we go home, eat dinner, do our homework, and go to bed.

It all gets very tiring after a while, but I love it—I wouldn't have it any other way. Especially my weight and height. At sixteen years of age, 4'11, and just under 95 pounds, I'm what most people would call "tiny". Luke says it makes it all the easier to throw and lift me, and stuff of that sort. I, on the other hand, get sick of people constantly telling me that I look like a malnourished 10-year-old. George says being small is good for both of us, since Pair Skating is dangerous anyways. It's not necessarily wise for a 6'1, 120 pound high school senior to pick up a 5'4, 115 pound high school junior and spin her around several times before allowing her to fall several feet onto the slick ice, then hope she completes a triple axle. Which is extremely hard to do, by the way.

So anyways. I don't have much time for this little thing called "life" in between skating, training, and school, but again, I wouldn't have it any other way. But just because I don't have a life is not saying I don't have any friends… I'm not home schooled. I go to a public high school and have friends, just like any other normal person. The only irregular part about it is the fact that I get to leave halfway through the day, and the fact that I don't have any electives, like band or art or keyboarding. I never have, really.

I've got two best friends—Emily and Renae. We spend a lot of time on Sunday together, since it's the only day I've got more than three hours to myself. We all go to the same church. Then we go out to eat, sometimes with my family, sometimes with theirs, and sometimes with Luke and George, before going to someone's house and studying for tests or do homework left over from Friday.

So yeah, that's my life. Interesting, no? Yes. Especially since I moved up to Senior level this year Luke and I are now allowed to compete in the National and World competitions with all the big shots. Like Michelle Kwan. If I was skating against her, I wouldn't stand a chance. As it is, we're not, since Pair Skating and Women's Skating are two completely different things. Anyways, since Nationals are in a few weeks… things have been interesting.

Luke came skating up to the wall, watching me write whatever in my journal.

"Whatcha writing?" He asked, leaning against the wall.

"Stuff." I answered matter-of-factly.

"What kind of stuff?"

"Is George here?" I countered his question with one of my own. "Can't you go… bug him or something?"

"Nope."

"Bah."

"I'm bigger than you, Annie." He told me. "And stronger. You need to diet. You weigh too much."

"Bah!" I said it louder this time. "I'm 92 pounds as of now. And yes. You are taller than me by a foot and an inch, but that doesn't necessarily make you stronger. Now go away."

"Make me!"

"BAH!" I stood up and jumped off the bleachers, intent on walloping him upside the head with my notebook. Instead, I stepped in a puddle of water and shrieked at it. "YEEK! COLD!"

"Very good, Annie. We have established the difference between hot and cold!"

I growled as I laced up my skates and stepped out on the ice to join him.

"Why do you call me Annie? It's Adrianne. A-D-R-I-A-N-N-E. Adrianne."

"Annie sounds more… feminine." He waved it away with a flap of his hand. "Where's George? We're not going to get anything done today and then we're not going to make Nationals and we'll never make Worlds and my mom will make me go to college and we won't be able to skate together anymore and I'll be sad and so will you, I hope, and then we'll never see each other again and we'll be 99 years old and run into each other at the drugstore getting our oxygen tanks refilled, and you'll forget what you were going to say and I'll laugh at you like I always do and… I ran out of things to say. Yeesh. That was a long sentence."

"I noticed." George's voice floated over to us from where he stood, leaned against the door.

"You're late." Luke pointed out, offering me a hand, since I hadn't stopped in time and had run into the wall and fallen on my butt. "What took you so long?"

"Personal." George said quietly, looking at the floor instead of us.

I shrugged. "What are we doing today, bossman?"

He grinned. I'd nicknamed him 'bossman' years ago after hearing my sister, Mary Ellen, refer to her boss that way. She absolutely hated him. Once she moved out and started college at Auburn, she quit her job and started waitressing tables at the Mellow Mushroom there. (A/N: Mellow Mushroom's a pizza place, if anyone doesn't know…) She likes the boss there a lot more.

Anyways… "You're going to have to share your rink with a bunch of French students. They're here on their class trip."

"And they came to…. Alabama. Why?"

"Space Center. They're going through Space Camp. That's all I know… Their phys ed. teacher wanted to make sure they got plenty of exercise, so they're coming here first. Your brother works there, doesn't he?"

"Who, Cary? Yeah. He's a counselor for the guys…" I trailed off. "Are you trying to hook me up with a French exchange student, George?"

"Who me?" He feigned innocence. "Never."

"All right, that's enough." Luke butted in.

"What are, you… _j-e-a-l-o-u-s_?" It was common knowledge around the rink that Luke had a crush on me. I knew it. George knew it. Everyone knew it. Only, I didn't like him… like that. He was one of my best friends, though, and as long as he was happy, I was happy. He never let on about wanting to be any more than friends, even though I knew he liked me, so… He's a pretty confusing guy sometimes. Then again… aren't they all?

Either way, confusing or not, Luke and I soon found ourselves on the rink preparing to skate our little hearts out. We went through our first routine—to "Jim Saves The Crew" from the Treasure Planet soundtrack. We actually had two routines that we would be performing at Nationals… "Jim Saves The Crew" and "Dances From Crete". They both are incredibly hard pieces of music—I've watched Renae battle her way through Dances From Crete more than once. This is mainly because she plays the piccolo and has a solo on almost every line, but I digress…

Anyways, George walked out onto the ice in his tennis shoes—he seemed to have perfect balance and therefore did this a lot—and called Luke over. We waited for him to come out of his sit spin, then started talking about what we had done wrong in our last run-through. We were too close to the wall on the death spiral, he said, and Luke's grip on me was too loose. One of us was going to get hurt if we kept it up like that. And thus he set us to practicing a death spiral (which is when the guy grabs the girl by the wrist, then spins her around in a circle when she's close to the ice. It's very painful and dangerous to be dropped on this one).

Ten minutes later he announced that the Frenchies had arrived and we needed to go through our routines once more before saying goodbye to half the rink. Since we both liked Jim Saves The Crew better than Dances From Crete, we did it last. Don't ask why—it's a combination of Adrianne-and-Luke logic.

And so there we were, skating our little hearts out and spinning and stuff, when all of a sudden about 50 or so French people come walking through the door. The one that caught my eye first was this guy (can you blame me? I've never had a boyfriend and the only guy that's ever shown interest in me wears spandex. Not that this is a bad thing…) that had almost white-blonde hair stuck up in a poif over his head. It looked really weird, especially with this purple spot in the middle.

George tapped me on the shoulder and I spun, showing off, before gliding over to Luke. A few seconds later, the music started.

It's easy to lose yourself in the music. You forget everything but landing your next turn or spin or flip. You don't notice people who haven't been there before. You don't notice the music. It's just you and your partner. And, if you fall, the really cold sensation of ice down the back of your leotard… So you can imagine that, since I was used to having a full rink to skate on and the fact that I notice nothing else, I was bound to bump into someone. And I did.

This REALLY HOT guy with messy brown hair lay, sprawled out on the ice, next to me. I blushed furiously, scrambled to my feet, and offered him my hand. "Sorry." I muttered in French, blushing. "Didn't see you." I skated off, after Luke, who was still spinning along to the music, holding his arms above his head where I should have been had I not been an idiot and deferred to full court instead of half-court.

I didn't go back to that side of the court again. Instead, George made us take a break, to eat something, and I willingly obliged. It's not easy, being a skater. You're expected to be small, but when I work with Luke, who weighs as much as a girl my age normally would, you've gotta be _tiny._ Thus, I was a vegetarian. I ate some meat—I had a hamburger, like, once every four months, if my weight got under 93, and grilled fish every once in a while. Mostly it was veggie burgers, salad, tofu, and yogurt for me. And the occasional soft drink when there was nothing else. Although Gatorade is good…

I had a yogurt in my bag. After putting my blade guards (those brightly colored plastic thingies that go on your blades if you're not on the ice so they don't get all dull) and pulling my shoes off completely, then stepping into a pair of Birkenstocks, I pulled out my yogurt and disappeared out the door.

Once there, I saw a blonde guy with glasses and a girl with pink hair deep in discussion over something about computers. I can't help it—I speak French. It's like English… if you walk by and hear someone in conversation, you can't help but listen to snatches of it. Anyways, I did what I came to do (grab a spoon) and made my way back to the rink. I found George eating a piece of pizza and Luke drinking a Pepsi Edge.

"Annie." Luke poked me in the shoulder.

I growled. "How many times do I have to tell you, _Gregory Lucas_, to call me Adrianne. A-D-R-I-A-N-N-E. Adrianne."

He waved my taunt away. "Would you stay still on that lift? I can't balance you and skate at the same time."

I heaved an exasperated sigh. I knew what he was talking about. There was this one lift that George had made us do, where I was over Luke's head for, like, five seconds before he flipped me upside down, spun in a circle with me curled up in his arms, and flung me out over the ice where we did a triple flip before going into a death spiral. Shortly said, I was up in the air, then in his arms, then spinning around in the air, then being pulled in a circle on the ice with my head dangerously close to the stuff. It was Not Cool. It was also Very Hard.

"I am still." I shot back, standing to throw my yogurt away. "Just because you won't put your hands where they're supposed to be does not mean that I have perfect balance." My sentence was further illustrated as I attempted to walk across the top bleacher and slipped. With a sigh of defeat, I tugged Luke to his feet and marched to where our skates lay.

It took me thirty seconds to get into mine. It took Luke more than two minutes. "Hey, fatty!" I called from the ice, where I was working on my Biellman spin. "Get your fat butt out here! I'm not gonna wait forever, you know!"

He sighed in defeat and walked out onto the ice. Moments later the music started again and he shot George a glare before starting in on our routine.

In the end, George had to ask Jim, the French people's gym teacher (Jim the Gym teacher… anyone notice the irony?) to move his kids off of the rink so that Luke and I could go through our routine twice without bumping into someone. Then it was off to the gym.

I slipped during the first run-through, missing my triple flip and sliding across the ice on my butt. The second one went without a hitch. It was also the first time we'd done the little combination of doom, as Luke had named it, without one or both of us falling and landing flat on our faces, or some other particularly painful body part.

We cleared off of the ice as the French people started taking their skates off. I took a sip of water before pulling on my blade guards, taking my skates off, and disappearing through the door with my bag slung over my shoulder.

And thus we disappeared off to the gym.

"I'm driving." I said flatly, sitting down in the driver's seat of Luke's car. It worked like clockwork—he drove me to and from school, and I drove him to the gym. He drove me back from the gym to IcePlex, where I left my car all day long, and we both drove home.

"Fine, be that way."

"I will!" I shouted cheerfully, plopping down on the driver's seat and shutting the door.

I pulled out of the parking lot and made my way to the Gym, barely noticing the bus that was right behind us… filled with French kids, of course. What else?

WITH ODD, ULRICH, JEREMIE, AND AELITA

"Did you see them?" Odd asked as he unlaced his skates, watching the mysterious female skater walk through the door with her bag slung over her shoulder. "Wow."

"Adrianne's a great kid." Jim's voice said. Odd turned to see his gym teacher standing behind him, waving to the man Odd thought was this "Adrianne's" coach.

"You know her?" Ulrich asked in confusion, winding the laces around his skates and setting them on the bleachers, slipping into his shoes.

"I know her coach. He's my cousin. Her partner is my brother-in-law's nephew. Came to a Christmas party with us once." He sighed. "If they finish first or second in Nationals, they'll move on to Worlds. It's in France this year, you know."

"How old is she?" Odd followed Jim out the door and down the hall to the skate rental/return window. "She didn't look any older than 10 or 11."

"She's 16."

"She's too small!" Odd cried, looking out the window and seeing her plop ungracefully into the driver's seat. In confusion, he asked, "She can drive?"

"You have to be at least 16 to drive here, Odd." Jim reminded him. "Why are you so interested, anyways? If you like to skate, join the hockey team."

"No, I just…"

Ulrich laughed. "He thinks she's hot."

"I do not!" Odd cried in indignation. "She's just… really good, that's all."

Ulrich smirked and raised his eyebrows. "Whatever."

The two friends made their way to the bus and sat down next to Jeremie and Aelita.

As the bus pulled out of the parking lot, Odd noticed who they were behind.

Adrianne.

He spent the rest of the night thinking about her.

A/N: It's a crappy story so far. It gets better, I promise! And so far, it has not plot, but I'm thinking someone from the Russian team wants to take Adrianne out and is going to use either Luke, Odd, or Jim to do it. Most likely not Luke, since he wants to be in Worlds just as bad as Adrianne. George would call the police… Hmmm… Anyways, that's it, so far.

I'll do responses at the end of every chapter, so if you want to see your name in this fic, review! Reviews are good.

Lilyana


	2. Odd

A/N: Here it is! Sorry for the wait! Ok, it still doesn't have a plot, but it will, so stick with me please!

The next morning, I woke up at about 4:50 and couldn't fall back asleep. I lay there for a few minutes, just staring at the ceiling and worrying about nationals (we were up against some really, really, _really_ good people this year… Like Katie Orscher and Garrett Lucash… Don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE fan of theirs, but can I help wanting to grind them into a pulp on the ice? Not that I actually think we're going to beat them…) I realized there was no way I was going to fall back asleep and got up.

My brother Cary (yes, Cary is a boys name. My Uncle's first name is Cary. That's who he's named after, apparently) came into my room at 5 a.m. "Ready" He asked, knocking once on my door before stepping in. "I need a ride. My car broke down and it's in the shop. Don't you have to skate today"

"Ready, I can drive you, sorry, and not until later today. It's Saturday. I don't have to be there until 7. Or 7:30. George has been late a lot lately, anyways."

"Hmm… good. Have you had breakfast yet"

"No. You"

"Nah. Whatcha want"

"Hmm… something with a lot of sugar. Or calories. Or any kind of meat. Of course, we all know I'm a vegetarian, so there goes _that_ idea." Being a vegetarian by force is not fun. Because for one, I love bacon. That sounds weird, coming from a tiny sixteen-year-old vegetarian girl, but sadly, it is true. I love meat. I just never get to eat it because of all the fat. And, of course, because I have to be teensy. Gets very annoying sometimes.

Anyways. We settled for something from Burger King—the wonderful place of meat-I-can't-have, open 24 hours in Huntsville—and ate on the road while talking to each other.

Cary worked at the Space and Rocket center, the biggest space center in America. And, now that I think about it, the world. Anyways, the center was about 20 minutes away from our house, so we had a nice little drive ahead of us that we used to talk or joke or confuse each other with confusing confusingness. Like Cary'll confuse me with random stuff involving the center. I confuse him with skate lingo. Like Beillmans. And axles. And flips.

We stopped and I got out to walk inside with him. On a normal day, I would have just dropped him off at the door and gone on my merry way to the rink. Not today—I had stuff to talk to someone named Chase about. It's a long story… ready? My older sister, Mary-Ellen, was dating Cary's best friend, Chase. Did ya catch that, hon? Mary-Ellen and Cary are Irish twins, by the way. They're about 10 months apart. So they're in the same grade—Cary skipped second grade—as Chase. That's how Marny (it's my nick/pet/to-annoy-her name for Mary-Ellen) and Chase met. They started going out in the 6th grade and had broken up once because he turned into an idiot and thought he could have possibly liked another girl. When he realized how far out of his league she was, he turned back to Marny. It was really funny, actually—I was surprised she agreed to go out with him again. Never mind that she had been head-over-heels in love with him the whole time he has been trying to get Sara's attention…

Anyways. I'd overheard him asking my dad for his blessing to marry Marny… and before I let him marry my only sister, I was going to have a few words with him. Like"If you hurt her, I will hunt you down and kill you using only panty-hose and a yogurt lid" or something along those lines.

Chase was waiting for Cary inside, like he always did. When he spotted me, he gave me a glare and marched down the hall to the guy's dorms. The guys slept on the right end of the bottom floor. The girls slept on the left end of the top floor… er… in the dorm building, anyways. My school had taken me back in the 5th grade… that's all I remember… (A/N: I did go with my school once. Only once. I had a really… interesting… experience. Like, people stay up all night and talk at the top of their lungs. Normally, this doesn't bother me if I can fall asleep before they start, but they started talking the second they got back from the showers. It got so annoying that I got some friends to tell a counselor, who talked to the people talking all night and complaining about how tired they were in the morning… They blamed my friends, who in turn blamed me. The one who got in trouble—cuz she did it again—to this day refuses to talk to me. Talk about holding a grudge… Wow. That was a long note.)

There was a lobby where you were supposed to wait if you were coming with a new group. Obviously, I wasn't allowed in the boys dorms because I'm a girl—duh—so I marched up the stairs to wait on Chase and Cary. I still had half an hour before I had to leave and arrive at the last possible moment.

There was a group of teenage students standing in the lobby, each talking amongst themselves and looking incredibly alert for being up at 5 in the morning. Then I realized they were speaking French—and more than that, they were the same people I'd seen at the rink yesterday! How coincidental is _that_? Weird, huh? And if they were the French students, then they would have been up at this time, since France is 7 hours behind Alabama, and it would be about 10:30 there…

Chase and Cary came upstairs a few minutes later, looking annoyed. I shrugged it off, grabbed Chase by the ear, and dragged him over to a remote corner of the room. "I walked overheard you asking my dad for his blessing last night." I informed him calmly. "So if you want to marry Marny, then at least know that I'm going to have to threaten you with… something… if you hurt her. Because she's Marny. She's like… a lily, in full blossom. If you cut the blossom off, it'll die. Or something. Right" I paused. "I just made an idiot of myself, didn't I"

"Yeah, Adrianne. You did. And about Ella…" (Ella was his pet name for Mary-Ellen, by the way) "I won't hurt her. If I do, I give you permission to come after me with a gun and shoot me. And I'll say that I gave you permission to do so."

"Ha" I laughed. "Anyways… are all these people from France"

"Yeah. Some boarding school. They're here on a class trip."

"Oh." I sighed.

"Adrianne"

"Yeah"

"You speak French better than me. Go mingle."

It was true—I spoke fluent French. My mom was from France. She married my dad, who is American. Since Dad worked all day, I got left at home with my mom, whose native language was French. Thus, she spoke it a lot around me. It got to the point that no one could speak anything but English around me for fear that I'd learn French better than I learned English. Then I'd never get out of kindergarten because I'd be stuck speaking French while all the other kids were speaking English.

I "mingled" for a total of fifteen seconds before some guy—the one with white-blond hair with the purple spot in the middle—came up and tapped me on the shoulder.

"Do you speak French"

"Yes." I whirled around to talk to him. "Why"

He shrugged. "No one else does."

"Cary does." I pointed to my brother. "And Chase speaks more than an average person."

"I'm Odd." He stuck his hand out and we shook.

"Odd" I asked.

"Odd. Odd name, huh" He paused. "Sorry, no pun intended."

I laughed. "Eh, I've heard some weirder ones. Like Cary. It's a girl's name, right? My parents named my older brother Cary. And my sister's name is Marny. Ok, well, we all call her Marny, but her real name is Mary-Ellen. I'm rambling, sorry."

"It's fine." There was an awkward silence before he said"If one of us doesn't ramble, no one is going to be able to talk for all the silence. Anyways, I want you to meet someone."

He walked over to a group of people standing roughly fifteen feet away. Among them, I recognized the blond boy with glasses, the girl with pink hair (how cool is that?) and the other guy that I'd skated into.

"Hi." I said shyly.

"This is Ulrich." Odd pointed to the one I'd knocked over. "This is Jeremie." He pointed to the blonde guy with glasses. "And that's Aelita." He pointed to the girl with the awesomely awesome pink hair. They waved. I waved back. "So…"

There was a long silence before my watch alarm went off. It was usually there to remind me that I had ten minutes to be on the ice, and therefore needed to stop flirting with the guys on the hockey team and making Luke jealous and get my skates on. Today, I wasn't even at the rink, much less in the car on my way. "CRAP" I swore. "Sorry." I added. "I was supposed to be at the rink, like, five minutes ago… Um… I'll see you tomorrow" I asked, walking backwards. "Sorry, I'm really late… Bye" I ran out of the room.

I ran down the stairs and was getting in my car when my phone rang. It was Luke. "Yo" I answered. "Whatcha want, fatty"

"Luke's daughter is sick. He called in today with some personal thing. I found out from the attendant why. So… we should go visit her… and get some ice time, because the hockey team wants the ice if you don't get here in ten minutes."

"I'm coming. Chase is about to propose to Marny. I had to threaten him with death… you know, the whole… CRAP" I swore again. "Sorry. Eighteen-wheeler just pulled out in front of me. Which daughter"

"The little one. Alison."

"With what"

"She's in ICU, that's all I know. Not yet"

"Huh"

"Sorry. They're bugging me about the ice."

"Tell them to go away."

"Hmm… yeah. Like a little shrimpy guy like myself is going to tell some big, bad hockey player to bug off. Yeah, real smart, Annie."

"I'm on my way. That's the best I can do. I can't think and drive at the same time, either."

"Well… go faster and get off the phone, then."

"Yeah, smart, Luke. Introduce a newly-licensed sixteen-year-old to this wonderful thing called 'speed' and all its addictive properties."

"If you can't talk and drive at the same time, get off the phone, Annie."

"Bah. I'm off. Bye"

"Bye." He hung up and I kept driving, thinking about Odd and the people I had just met.

So I sat there in the car, thinking about him… and stuff…

When I got to the rink, all the hockey players were skating all over our freshly-zambonied ice. Luke was sitting against the wall with a look of defeat across his face, looking bored out of his mind and really impatient.

"Hey fatty" I called, marching into the rink. "Evil hockey players! Get off our smooth ice! You don't have practice for three more hours! Shouldn't this be good"

"Nah." They skated off. Isn't that interesting—they listened to me, but they didn't listen to Luke. Or anyone who came in and told them to get off. Does this tell you anything?

Anyways. Luke and I ran through our routines a few times before the ice got too rough to skate on. We were coming back later, anyways, so we skated off and put on our street clothes, then went to see George. He was, obviously, in the hospital with his daughter and the rest of his family (another daughter, his wife, and his parents, who were too old to live by themselves and refused to be put in an old-people home) waiting to hear something about his daughter. They weren't allowed in to see her, and she was out like a light, so she couldn't get out to see them… duh.

And there we sat, for who knows how long, until the doctor came out and told him the news.

It was bad. Real bad.

They didn't know exactly what was ailing her yet, but from what they'd been told, it sounded like anemia, which is where you don't have enough iron in your blood. This wouldn't have been too bad, if they had been 100 percent sure that it was anemia and not something else. As it was, though, they weren't… which meant it could have been something else. Something… worse.

And it was. It was a whole lot worse.

A/N: Right, someone asked about Yumi in the last chapter… Here's what's happened, and it has a point in the story, I promise. She's in another grade, right? And this is a class trip. So obviously she got left behind. She is in the story, I promise, it's just in a later chapter. After this one, Adrianne doesn't see any of them for another 3 months (roughly 5 chapters) and then… well… let's just say Talia is a main character in this one. It gets into her past… including her sister… Muahaha. I know where it's going and you don't! Neener neener neener! Anyways… I'm sorry it's so late getting this chapter up… I had band camp all week long (at least we didn't have to march this time…) and I have a piccolo part, so it's not like I could exactly skip. Not that I'd want to, because I'd flunk out of band, which is _really_ hard to do if you attend all required functions… so… anyways, I'll shut up now. I'm going to finish the other chapter of All My Brothers… Read it, please! If you haven't already!

THANK YOU'S!

Diamond-Halo- AWESOME! A FELLOW SKATER! (grin) Yeah, I'm not that good, cuz I only go, like, once a week, so… If I get something wrong, let me know and I'll fix it, ok?

Kayrana- thanks!

Allyfromcali- Cool! I'm gonna have to read it!

Three reviews? IS THAT _IT_? Come on, guys, you can do better than that!

Oh, one more thing. I am grounded… for having a "bad attitude" or whatever… so if they take my computer away… well, for one, they'll take my sanity, but for two, the next chapters will be late getting posted… Yeah, anyhoo… That's all. Thanks for reading! Now go press the little purple button that says "go" and make an author _really_ happy!


	3. Twee

A/N: The next chapter has arrived! Well, technically not, since the chapter isn't even written as I write this and it's Tuesday, one day before I am to start editing both this and All My Brothers, so I highly doubt that they'll be up by Sunday like I planned, but whatever… Anyways, read on! It gets really good soon, so stick with me!

Luke and I made it back to the rink after visiting with George and his family, then catching a quick lunch (fast food again… But Wendy's has really good salads if you go light on the dressing. Besides, I usually bring my own. Believe it or not, I'm a raspberry vinigrette person. Weird, huh?)

Back at the rink, the hockey players had once again taken over our rink, so we had to run them off. Again. And find the Zamboni driver. And get him to smooth the ice over. And then make him leave, because he decided he wanted to watch us work on our routines, picking them apart bit by bit and then putting them back together. We finally had to call security to make him leave.

It's a bit weird, having a stalker, no?

We left the rink about 6 or 7 runs later, tired as anything. Especially me. But I had an excuse—I'd been up since 4! My internal clock allows me to be up at 4 on any day except weekends, but boy howdy, when something wakes me up at 4 on a weekend, I'm deader'n a doornail. (A/N: Wait a minute… where did that phrase come from, anyways? Aren't doornails usually dead? Come to think of it… I've never seen a live doornail.

Anyways. After we left, we dropped by Twee's. Twee was an elderly Japanese lady that George had met one night in the hospital waiting for his third daughter, Elizabeth, to be born. Twee was waiting on her grandson. Anyways, the two got to talking, and when George figured out that Twee liked to sew (and did so for cheap) he asked her to make our skating costumes. Most of the time, people would have ordered them, but when we found someone who, when you took into consideration the cost of fabric, and embellishments, and a small salary, still made them cheaper than you could order them, it seemed like a good deal to me. And George.

Luke came out and modeled his for us. It was spandex, once again. A rather interesting side story on spandex, if you have time and want to listen to me poke fun at Luke. George and I have often questioned his masculinity, since, if you are male, you have to have little or none to wear spandex in the first place. Luke just shrugs it off.

Anyways. Luke's was spandex. The first song we were skating to—Dances from Crete—was roughly 5 minutes long. Actually, it was just the second movement of the song, since the whole thing put together was between 18 and 24 minutes long. I still think that the only reason we were skating to it in the first place was because Renae had come to one of our practices a few weeks ago with her piccolo, and when Luke and I went on break George talked her into playing something for him. He said it sounded like an angel's music. I thought it sounded like a train wreck. The first movement was about a minuotaur—this demon half cow half human kind of thing that was locked underneath the aqueducts or something and was fed human sacrifices of little Roman children. YUCK! Thankfully, we were not dancing to the demon cow song. We were dancing to Tik, the second movement of the same song. Tik was, apparently, a dance about the "sensuous movements of young women". When one is playing Tik, one should feel the beat 'like a Cretan peasant on the threshing floor'. According to Renae, at least. Can you say GROSS?

Thus, our costumes were red.

Well, red and black, actually. Luke had on plain black pants, like always, and a skintight red short sleeved shirt underneath a black mesh top looking kind of thing.

Me? Yeah, I had on a skirt up my butt, like always, and a plain red leotard. With a really low cut neck and various little frilly thingies all over the place. And a big V down the back. Actually, the darned thing was backless and pretty near being frontless. If I got taken to court for this thing, we couldn't hold trial because of insufficient evidence. (A/N: Get it? No leotard, no evidence? Haha… Ok, that was lame. Sorry, guys.)

"One… two… three!" We said in unison, turning to give each other a once-over before looking at ourselves. It was this stupid little tradition we'd had since… well, I'd had it back when I was skating alone, only I'd show Renae or Marny or Cary or Mom or Dad or anyone else who happened to be with me. I don't know how long Luke had had it. Anyways, I glanced at him. He looked… wow.

Let me say this: Luke is HOT! He's got this gorgeous curly dark brown hair and these really bright blue eyes and full lips. This is NOT saying that I could ever feel anything but friendship towards him. Ever. And no one seems to understand that. Renae is always going on about how we are going to get married some day and have little Adrianne-and-Luke babies. Eurgh. As if! At school all the seniors are swooning all over him. I swear, there isn't one girl who doesn't have his name scrawled across the cover of her notebooks… with little hearts around it, no less. And Luke? Ah, he just sits there and smiles.

Even Twee thinks we belong together. Um… may I point out that since I skate with him all day, every day, I know everything about him? And I mean _everything_. Right down to the his underwear (boxers, duh) and the type of socks he wears (when he's in skates, it's wool ski socks. When he's at school, it's Hanes ankle socks. When he's at home, no socks). I've seen him in his boxers so many times that I lost count, and vice versa. Well… I don't wear boxers, but you get the point. AND I know his deepest-darkest-never-tell-anyone-ever secret. Besides liking me, I mean. And everyone knows _that_, so… Anyways. His deepest-darkest-never-tell-anyone-ever secret? It's… THAT HE IS AFRAID OF BUNNIES! Like, rabbits. I don't know why. He swears it was because when he was little, one nearly bit wrist off, but I have doubts. Perhaps he is afraid of the killer rabbit on Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Hmmmm?

My deepest-darkest-never-tell-anyone-ever secret? I am afraid of elevators. No one could tell, cuz I can hide it really well if we're in a 2 or 3 story building. And then we get to those in a sky scraper… Then I send my luggage up with George and make Luke take the stairs with me. And there's this sort of "unspoken bond" kind of thing going on. He knows I know, and I know he knows. Our secrets, I mean. So when we're threatened to blackmail each other, we just have to remember that vital body parts could be "accidentally" cut off with the edge of a skate, right? Or that Luke's fear of bunny rabbits could be revealed to the entire school and all those notebooks with his name and hearts scrawled around them could disappear right into the trash bin.

"Wow, Annie." He said in this seductive voice. "You look…"

"Skimpy." I finished for him, tugging on the top to make it less skimpy, though I doubted much could be done to make it so, short of altering the whole thing. Which would have not made George and Twee very happy. George, because he picked the costumes (although I still maintain that I should have at least _some_ say at how far up my butt the skirt goes) and Twee because she made them. Sometimes I think she makes mine skimpy so that Luke will be overcome by my beauty (PAH!) and make the first move. Although everyone knows I'd slap him if he did.

"Nah. You look like… an angel." He came towards me and brushed the hair out of my face. I grabbed his wrist. "What _have_ you been smoking?" I paused. "I want some."

"Absolutely nothing, my dear Annie. Only the highest adoration for you."

"Ugh. Luuuuuuke, you _know_ how I feel about that!" I paused again, then asked, "You can smoke adoration? Man, I _really_ need to find a significant other!"

He grinned and shrugged. "It was worth a try."

"Do it again and I'll 'slip' during practice. You might find yourself missing a vital body part, no?"

He twitched and turned to examine his costume in the mirror.

"You like?" Twee asked in her broken English.

"Yeah. Thanks, Twee." He tugged on the mesh thing to make it longer, since it was riding up around his midriff.

"No no no no!" Twee exclaimed, rushing over to aid Luke in the mesh-tugging. "You gain weight? This fit measurements I take. Not fit you now."

"No… wait. Yeah. I gained weight… but only about 3 pounds! Nothing major!"

"You gain weight. Costume no fit!" Twee exclaimed exasperatedly. "Lose it."

"Huh?"

"Lose it." She repeated. "Costume fit if you not so fat."

"Hey! I resent that!" Luke knew she was just joking.

She laughed. "You lose weight by nationals, yes?"

"Yeah."

"Good." She held out her hand for the costume and he took it off… right there in the middle of the room. In front of all the other Japanese girls who had been looking curiously at Luke and talking in hushed tones.

Twee barked something in Japanese and they all snapped back to work, though I couldn't help but see them staring at his chest. Luke walked into the back room to get his clothes. I followed him, feeling rather embarrased at the lowness of my top. And if we were favored to win, I was gonna have to wear this thing on _international TV! GAAH! WHY?_

I changed out of my costume and put it back in its rightful place—on a hanger—and handed it back to Twee so she could hold onto it for me. Everyone who knows me knows I can't keep track of _anything_ for more than a few days, at the most. And Nationals were still a few weeks away, so giving me the costume was a bad idea.

A FEW MINUTES LATER…

About fifteen minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot of the Space and Rocket Center, where Cary worked. Space Camp was in full gear now, but since I knew the schedule like the back of my hand, I knew they'd either be at dinner or on their way to it. Plus, I was hungry. And lucky me, Space Camp has a vegitarian menu. WOOT! Luke had to stay, since he'd driven and I didn't have my car.

I marched inside, then back outside, and around the rocket to the cafeteria. Space camp is set up in about 4 different buildings, and to get from one to the other you have to go through all of them. You first have to go through the dorms to get to the shortcut to the cafeteria. Then you have to go back outside, and around the big rocket (I forget which one it is… there's, like, 12) to the cafeteria.

I vaguely wondered if Cary would be counselloring for Odd and his group before yanking the door open and walking inside.

Yup. Cary was sitting at the table next to Odd, Jeremie, Ulrich, and Aelita. I plopped down in an empty seat next to him and smiled sweetly up at him. "Oh dear brother of mine… wanna go get me a salad? I'll watch them, I promise!"

"Go get your own." He laughed. I turned to Chase, who was sitting behind me and to the left. "Chase? Will you do something for future family?"

"What do you want, Adrianne?"

"Go get me a salad, please? With no dressing? I have my own."

"That's just sad, Annie." Luke took the opportunity to sit down in Chase's empty seat. "You carry a bottle of dressing around?"

"It's not as gross as it sounds. It's in a baby food jar. I keep it in a little cooler thing. I wash it out every night!"

"Yeah, but still…"

Cary cut in. "Aren't you supposed to be skating?"

"That's the fifth time I've been asked this question today, Care Bear. No. George is at the hospital with his family. I'm bored and we can't seem to hold the rink for more than an hour at a time, so… We just quit early today."

"Whatever." Cary turned back to some of the French people. I noticed one of them, a girl with long black hair and a big yellow headband, staring at him like he was an angel right out of heaven. I'd often wondered if this was true—honestly, the only thing he was missing was the halo.

"You like him?" I called in French.

She flushed and turned back to her friends.

"Annie, why must you chase away all my future girlfriends?"

"I thought _I_ was the only one you'd ever consider being with?" I questioned, swatting him playfully on his back.

"Well, when cute French girls are brought into the picture, everything changes."

"She doesn't know you half as well as I do."

"So?"

"So… Meh. Date her if you want."

"I wouldn't." Acorn man cut into our conversation as Chase returned from the salad bar.

"And why ever not?" I asked in French, since he had a lot of trouble with English, aparrently.

"She's evil."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh." I relayed this information to Luke, who pouted before smiling. I dug into my salad. He stole a piece of lettuce. "Hey!" I cried in indignation. "Get your own!"

"No!" He pulled a face as the after-effects of my dressing hit him like a rock. "Gross!" He cried. "Annie, who can you eat this stuff?"

"Because." I answered matter-of-factly. "It masks the deflicted lettuce taste go away. And makes it taste something like a raspberry."

"That's just gross, Annie."

"Thank you, dear Lucas."

"You're welcome, oh wonderful girlfriend of mine."

"I am NOT your girlfriend. Nor will I ever be, so you can get rid of _that _idea now before I whack you in the face with my skates."

"Oh wow, I'm scared."

"Shut up." I turned back to my salad to find Cary, Chase, and the four French people staring back at me.

"What?" I asked innocently. "I can't help it if he bugs the living daylights out of me suggesting that we should go out!"

"So wait… are you are aren't you?" The girl with pink hair spoke in flawless English. Even her accent was good.

"We aren't. We skate together."

"Oh."

There was a long pause. Then, I turned to Cary. "Have you asked her yet?"

A/N: This is a deflicted place to leave it off, but I can't help it. It's a Sunday afternoon, and I just got this written. I have to have it edited and up tonight. See you next week!

No thank you's this time, sorry. I'll get them next week!


	4. Sleepover

A/N: Sorry for the wait. Lotsa stuff going on in my life that I don't understand exactly. Not much time to write. Trying to get into Sewanee, which I can never go to without a scholarship, which I can't get because of my grades. Which aren't bad, they just aren't enough to get a full scholarship. Uhng… And I'm only a Freshman! I shouldn't worry about this stuff! BTW, State Band Contest is tomorrow. I play the piccolo. I am the _only_ person in my band who plays piccolo. I have a solo. I am the only one playing. It is scary. I am using short sentences. It is fun. Haha, enough of that. Anyhoo, yeah. Competition tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Here you are! Hot off the press-er… laptop… computer… bah. Just read it, m'kay?

I turned to Chase. "So… have you asked her yet?"

Chase flushed and mumbled something about having to use the restroom, then fled the room. Luke laughed (I'd let him in on the secret once he promised not to tell anyone he knew, and that meant Care Bear and my mom) and when Cary shot him a questioning glance, he groaned. "Don't ask me!" He cried, pointing at me and nearly poking me in the eye with his finger. He has really big hands, even for a guy. Seriously. His index finger goes from my chin to the bridge of my nose. "She told me about it! Ask her!"

Odd glanced at me before muttering something in what sounded like German. His friends laughed.

We spent another hour at the Center before we left, when Cary finally declared it time for Odd and his friends to go back to the dorm. Cary caught a ride with us. Chase had his own car, and he was going engagement ring shopping for Marny, so there you go.

At home we ate dinner. Duh. What else do you do at home, besides laze around on the couch sleep? Anyways. Normally, mom makes some kind of meat-filled dish, since everyone else is a raging carnivore, and lets me have my choice of tofu or a salad. Tonight, however, she observed my rights as a vegetarian and didn't put any meat in the ravioli! Well… In mine, at least. All that was in mine was spinach and mozzarella cheese. Technically, that doesn't count as vegetarian, because pasta has a _lot_ of fat in it, and so does cheese, but come on. It had spinach in it! GROSS! Can you tell by now that I can't stand vegetables? In my opinion they should all be burned and made illegal. Except green beans. And fried okra. Only, it's FRIED and therefore against my diet. I like fried squash, too, but it is also FRIED and I can't eat it but once or twice a year (in the summer, when we skate five times a week for five hours, instead of the eight hours every single day).

The weekend passed with surprising speed and in no time it was Sunday, the _only_ day of the week where I have any time whatsoever to myself. I found myself sitting in a booth at Tenders, a place that serves chicken, squished between Emily and Renae (both of whom weighed more than Luke, by the way). Luke was sharing the other side of the booth with Cary. Chase and Marny were sitting across the room somewhere. My parents had opted to stay at home, since mom usually cooks some huge meal on Sunday and Dad just likes to sleep.

I was eating grilled chicken and drinking a water. And eating a pickle. Much as I hate them, it was the only other thing I could eat.

"So, Adrianne." Emily poked me in the side and I squeaked. Have I mentioned that I am _really_ ticklish?

"Yes, Emily?" I took another bite of my chicken.

"Are you and Luke going out yet?" Yes, Emily was one of the people who believed that Luke and I would eventually get together. Which we so totally would _NOT_.

I choked into my water. Cary laughed. Renae smirked. Luke just sat there with this stupid grin on his face, until he realized that I was slowly grinding my heel into his foot with my "hooker sandals" as Emily called them. They were a pair of clear plastic sandals that made me at least five inches taller that I usually was. That way, I was about as tall as Renae and Emily were! Instead of being 4'11 and a foot and an inch shorter than Luke and at least half a foot shorter than Emily and Renae, I was only 9 inches shorter than Luke, and an inch shorter than Renae and Emily. It was fun. However, the "hooker sandals" were so _terribly_ hard to walk in.

"Stop it, Annie!" He whined, from where he was eating fries. Yes, Luke was eating fries. It bugged me _so _much because he got to eat, like, whatever he wanted (he was _not_ a vegetarian. He had fish all the time) and I was stuck with vegetables and tofu. YUCK!

"Make me." I growled, before nabbing one of his fries. He glared at me.

"You never answered her question." Renae told me, taking it right out of my hand and eating it. When I glared at he, she shrugged. "You didn't need it." She paused to finish off the rest of the fry. "Now, answer the question."

"I am _not_, nor will I _ever_, go out with Luke."

"Aww, Annie, that's mean!" He pouted.

"Get over it."

He growled at me, then sighed and started in on another fry. (Sigh) What I wouldn't give to be able to eat salty potato-ey goodness again! I hadn't had a single fry since I was 8 and took skating seriously. I'd cut back on fast food when I was 12 and started skating 7 times a week. I became a vegetarian when I was 13 and started missing school for it.

We left a few minutes later. Luke went home, since his mom was there, and Renae and Emily and I all piled in my car and drove home. We did our homework at my house on Sundays before I had to leave for IcePlex at 4. I got back at 7, when church started, and I went back and practiced for two more hours before going home.

Anyhoo. Cary and Chase, like I've said, were both day counselors at the space and rocket Center. Space camp had two sets of counselors—day counselors, who were college kids like Chase and Cary, and night counselors, who were usually old people with nothing to do but spend the night around a bunch of hyper teenagers. Space Camp also had a problem with this year's counselors. The night counselors were notorious for just… not showing up. Usually, someone would stay. Chase stayed a lot. Cary stayed sometimes when Chase couldn't.

Tonight, I was staying.

"Dree!" Cary whined over the phone. "Can you _please_ stay?"

It was 10:00 at night, which is an hour past my bedtime. I'm usually in bed by 9, when I don't have to skate on Sunday. Call me when I'm sleeping, and I keele you.

"Cary!" I whined back. "We qualify for Nationals tomorrow!"

I'm sure he rolled his eyes at that, even though he knew I couldn't see him.

"Dree!" He cried. "No one showed up tonight! You're the only person I know who speaks French!"

"Marny speaks French."

"She's in Auburn."

"Gaah. How old are these people?"

"Most of them are fifteen and sixteen."

"Care Bear! They're _my_ age! None of them are going to listen to _ME!_"

"Just… Please, Dree." He sounded desperate. I'm sure that, had I been standing there, he would have given me his puppy dog pout. He probably gave it to the phone anyway.

"Cary… We qualify for Nationals tomorrow. If I'm not fully awake and ready to skate…"

"I'll have you a bed made. Come in and crash. They'll probably go to sleep when you do—it's been a long day."

"Yeah, fine." I mumbled into the phone. "Give me about 45 minutes."

"It doesn't take you 45 minutes to pack a bag, Dree."

"It takes me at least 20 minutes to get an overnight bag, a gym bag, my skates, lunch money, and my book bag together and by the door. It takes another 20 to 30 minutes to drive from here to the Center."

"Just come on."

"Ugh. Fine." I moaned into the phone. "But I'm leaving at 4:30 and I am NOT staying for breakfast. Nor am I skipping out on Gym or anything else tomorrow to help you. One night ONLY."

And so it was with great regret that I found myself piling in my car and going to the Center on a Monday night. To spend it with lots of hyperactive French teenage girls with nothing to do but keep their night counselor up all night when she _really_ needed to get some sleep for National qualifications the next morning.

I came to the Girl's Dorm to find Odd and his friends standing outside. Generally, guys aren't even supposed to be on the same floor as girls (dorm wise, that is) so seeing them outside surprised me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, slinging my gym bag down on the floor and wincing as my skates hit the floor with a loud CLINK. I had two pairs of skates—a pair of practice skates that were really beat up and autographed by a lot of people (Like Michelle Kwan and Katie Orscher and Garrett Lucash and Johnny Weir). Like all girl's skates, they were white. This was not saying I hadn't drawn all over them in neon orange sharpie and pink hi-liter.

"I could ask the same thing." Odd answered. "Why are you here?"

"I'm being a girl's night counselor for a night because theirs decided not to show up!" I announced cheerfully. "Did Care Bear bring any sheets up?"

"Yeah, they're over there." Aelita waved me over to a bed.

"What did you drop?" Ulrich asked. I bent to dig my skates out of my gym bag and held them up by their laces (SPONGEBOB! Hey, just cuz I'm going to Nationals (hopefully) doesn't mean I can't have some really weird looking practice skates).

"SKATES!" I said cheerfully.

Aelita grabbed me by the hand and tugged me back outside. Ulrich was gone. Aelita followed after Jeremie, who was heading down the hall. I saw him take her by the hand and lead her into a corner.

Odd smiled at me. "Wanna take a walk?"

My heart did this weird little flippy thing in my chest. "Yeah, can you wait for a minute? Let me get my stuff fixed… Um…" I tripped over my gym bag and threw it annoyedly at what I thought was my bed. Apparrently not, since this girl in a tight pink shirt and yellow headband gave me a sarcastic look and tossed it off.

"Sorry!" I called into the room. "Just… don't hurt my skates, they're the only dead pair I have!"

"Dead?" Odd questioned as we left the room.

"Yeah. I've got two pairs of skates. I've got a practice pair, and a performance pair." I paused, and when he still didn't understand, I elaborated. "One pair is for practice. The other is for performances. Since I don't practice in them, they look all nice and white." I paused. "And they don't have Spongebob laces."

"Oh." He understood. We came to the steps and walked down them. "So…" He trailed off. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Geez. Could you be any more obvious?" He blushed and I smiled. "No. Luke's just my skating partner."

"Well, he seemed pretty cozy around you today." Odd shrugged.

I blinked. "No. Well, yeah, he likes me, and from time to time he refers to himself as my boyfriend, but he never means anything by it. Besides, I've got my hopes set on someone else now."

"Please don't tell me you like Ulrich."

"Who? Oh, him. Nah. Some guy on the hockey team at IcePlex."

"Oh." Odd's face fell before he shrugged it off. "Well anyways, you said something about qualifying for something, so… good luck with whatever it is tomorrow!"

"Thanks!" I called after him. My watch went off—11:00. Exactly two hours past my bedtime.

Before I left, I poked Odd in the side. Turns out he's pretty ticklish, took.

"I don't actually _know_ this guy. He's just one of the guys on the Hockey Team at IcePlex who likes messin' with me."

Odd shrugged before walking down the stairs in a dejected way.

After mumbling a sleepy goodnight to Odd, I marched back to the dorm in time to see Aelita sneak one last kiss from Jeremie. Smiling at them (as Odd had told me Saturday afternoon, Jeremie was 13 and Aelita was 14) and the thought of "young love" I went back to the dorm to catch what I had hoped would be a peaceful night's sleep. "Do I have a chance?" I wondered as I ambled down the hallway.

Of course, how much sleep can you get when your roommates include 26 teenaged french girls who happen to be used to their own time zone? Not much, it turns out. Especially when the one who had flirted with Luke on Friday (Sissi, as I later learned) turns out to be the headmaster's daughter, so you can't do anything to her or she'll run crying to her daddy. Who was staying in the Mariott a few hundred yards off of Space Camp property.

At midnight, I drew the line. I turned the light on and managed to wake up several girls, but glared at the three or four who had been talking.

"Listen." I said in a deadly voice. "I don't care what you do past 4 in the morning tomorrow, because that's when I get up. But please… I have to qualify for this or we're never going to get anywhere." It only occurred to me afterwards that the poor girls probably had no idea what I was saying, because I was probably babbling on in English and making absolutely no sense at all. I elaborated. "I'm a pair skater. There is this HUGE competition in two weeks, and my partner and I have to qualify for it tomorrow. So unless you want to wrath of a thousand angry Adriannes on you, get some sleep. You're gonna need it."

That didn't work. I finally resorted to yelling.

And it shut them right up.

THE NEXT MORNING

I found myself in my car heading for IcePlex at 5 the next morning. Yes, I was behind schedule. But considering that George hadn't been there in time for the last three practices and had missed one of them completely, I found it highly unlikely that he'd actually be there on time today. So, I dropped by Wendy's for a quick breakfast and arrived at the rink half an hour late. Luke glared at me from his spot on the bleachers. George sighed.

"Where were you? We tried calling you, like, 12 times." Luke groaned, shoving his foot into his left skate and lacing it up.

I checked my phone to make sure it was on. It wasn't. I guess I turned it off in the night to keep the alarm from waking up all the French girls at 4:30 in the morning and forgot to turn it back on when I left the Center.

"Oh well." I shrugged and pulled my skates out of my bag and pulled them on. Then we went onto the rink and George started the music up.

Our qualifications went better than I had expected, considering I'd gotten only 3½ hours of sleep the night before.

(A/N: I'm not terribly good at skating, so I'm not going to Nationals any time soon. I am, however, attempting to make it to the 2014 Olympics. Watch for me! Right. I don't know anything about Nationals or qualifications or anything, but just go with me.)

At the end of the practice, George got in his car. Luke and I got in his, and we drove to the gym.

We hadn't worked out (or really practiced) since Thursday afternoon. Thus when George told me to do 100 leg presses, I was dying after about 40. I only made it to 75 before I died.

Luke is what I would call a very strong person. In mind and in body. In body because he can balance my 96 pound self on one hand and spin me around several times in midair before setting me back down again. When we'd last practiced, we had gotten lazy and just skipped most of the lifts and throws. That meant that when George had put us to our floor exercise Luke had dropped me several times because we hadn't done any of the lifts. It was bad. It also hurt.

"You're lucky you didn't break any bones." George said mildly from where he was sitting on a bench, next to two 50 lb. weights. Which Luke couldn't pick up, by the way.

"George!" I whined in the best impression of my little 3-year-old niece that I could. (Technically she wasn't my niece—she was Chase's half sister, so…) "So we didn't practice for three days. Big deal." I flapped my hand dismissivly.

"I'd be a lot more inclined to tell you whether you made it into Nationals if you'd practice." He said mildly, dangling an envelope between his thumb and index fingers. As I reached out to snatch it from him, he moved away. He's pretty spry for a 50-something old guy.

Luke straightened up and swiped me off my feet. He twirled me around in what would have been a very nice lift if I had cooperated and worked with him instead of shrieking at the top of my lungs. Several people turned around to stare at me.

The rest of the practice went pretty much without a hitch. Finally, the end. George held the envelope out with trembling hands (though they trembled cuz he was old, not cuz he was nervous or anything. He knew full well whether we were going to Nationals or not) and slipped it open slowly. I finally snatched it away from him and ripped it open. After a brief scuffle with Luke I returned triumphant, holding a slightly crumpled piece of paper in my hand.

__

We were in.

A/N: Short chapter this time, sorry. I've been so busy with school and guys that I haven't had a lot of time to write this time.

SPOILER…

"Cary!" I screamed, running into the briefing room, knowing full well that they were in the middle of a lecture. "Cary! Cary!"

"What?" He asked, with this annoyed look on his face.

"WE'RE IN!" I screamed, throwing myself at him.

His jaw dropped. "You're _in_?"

"We're IN!" I yelled joyously at the top of my lungs! "We're in! This means I have a chance!"

"Whoah, calm down." He gave me a friendly pat on the shoulder. "You're only sixteen. The chances of you going all the way to Worlds are slim to none."

"Yeah, Care Bear, ruin my perfect moment, why don't you?"

REVIEWER RESPONSES FOR CHAPTER 2:

SohowisYumi2181- sorry, can't tell you. You'll find out in the next chapter. Which is, ironically, when Odd goes home.

Allyfromcali- thanks! Yes, I should read it. Post it soon!

Kayrana- thanks! Yeah, it's completely plotted now. Well… as plotted as it can get on the back of my band folder, but whatever…

Odd9- thanks!

Diamond-Halo-Thanks! I am practicing… I'm still bad.

Kayrana- Yes. Big patience. Mmmm… sleep. Wonderful thing.

SohowisYumi2181- Yumi _is_ at school. Wasn't the yellow headband a dead giveaway? SISSI!

That's all. Come on, you guys can do better than that! No go click the purple button that says go and make this author really happy!


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